It’s 10.30 p m and I am driving along Mumbai’s Bandstand, a promenade famous for its glitzy nightlife and fancy sea-facing bungalows owned by film stars and industrialists. The beat constable, who is grateful because I agree to his request to give him a lift for a short distance, immediately starts talking about the city that is becoming tired and bitter by the day.
It is easy to empathise with the constable. For, it is the night of July 13 and Mumbai is under a terror attack yet again. My co-passenger is on duty far away from the places targeted because his current job is to look out for “suspicious-looking objects” at the Bandstand. But he is emotionally disturbed and talks about his colleagues who are going through a harrowing night in Dadar, Zhaveri Bazaar and Opera House. “We are the first line of defence and are used as guinea pigs,” the constable says.
Yet, he considers himself lucky because he can get a good night’s sleep in his father’s one-room flat in Meira Road, a distant suburb. “But have you been to any of the police quarters where constables live? They are worse than cow sheds — 180-sq ft ‘flats’ far away from their workplace, with one toilet for 15 families. In a city like Mumbai, our basic pay is Rs 5,200. And then people expect us to be honest and alert 24x7,” the constable says.
If you want to check whether the constable’s version is just an emotional outburst or grounded in facts, visit the city’s Worli Camp district, a stretch of crumbling concrete buildings that house thousands of police officers and their families. Or Behrampada, a teeming slum in Bandra. My co-passenger may have been right when he said many constables, who are supposed to be the face of Mumbai Police, stay there with potential criminals as neighbours .
The experience during these visits will certainly not be too different from what an order passed by the Maharashtra Human Rights Commission (MSHRC) said. Ninety per cent of lower-ranking staff of Mumbai Police stays in “hazardous and inhuman” conditions. Most of these quarters get only an hour of water supply a day. To top it, most work for more than 14 hours a day and spend up to three hours commuting.
Mumbai Police authorities say they are doing their best to improve the condition in the 25-odd Police Line complexes. New buildings are being constructed with each flat having an area of 480 sq ft. For example, the Ghatkopar Police Line has already been constructed with 228 flats, housing over 1,200 people.
That’s good news, but what is not is the absence of basic HR planning for a cadre that accounts for over 70 per cent of the Mumbai police force and is supposed to be the first point of presence in case of a law and order problem.
According to a National Police Commission report, with the system of direct recruitment at the level of sub-inspector and the relatively meagre number of sub-inspectors’ posts compared to that of the constabulary, a majority of the constables retire as constables without even one rank promotion in their entire careers. And, no police force in India runs a programme encouraging constables to take time off for higher education, or linking promotions to new qualifications.
It’s obvious that no system can remain healthy if such a large chunk of its personnel vegetate and burn out after working for nearly 30 years in the same rank in which they had entered the system.
Despite repeated calls for reform, such limited prospects for promotion can only continue to demoralise the police and make them less motivated to improve. The N N Vohra Committee, set up over 18 years ago after the 1993 Mumbai blasts , recommended a series of police reforms. Each time Mumbai is targeted, that report is revived only to be forgotten.
Observers say the reason is the old mindset — an overhang of the Police Act of 1861 that designed constables as part of a low-cost unskilled force that performs only mechanical duties.
The health facilities are also abysmal. For example, roughly a third of Mumbai’s traffic constables suffer from lung problems – including respiratory disorders and tuberculosis – caused by excessively long hours of duty.
And finally, here is something that has been commented upon several times without much follow-up action. Mumbai Police, like most police in India, remains in a time warp and equips its constables with World War II vintage rifles when the enemy has graduated to AK-47s. Remember the horrific TV images of Constable Jillu Yadav firing his rifle at terrorists at the Chhattrapati Shivaji Terminus, only to find it jammed? In sheer frustration, he hurled a plastic chair at them.
Three years later, nothing much has changed for Mumbai Police constables. My co-passenger on the night of July 13 would vouch for that.
